Vienna: hashish trafficking in Niort, a fourth release in the suspended investigation
On Tuesday, July 2, 2024, the courts had to release a new suspect who had been implicated for a year in a major drug trafficking operation in Niort. The investigating judge’s investigation was halted while the nullities were being ruled on.
A key case of drug trafficking in Niort is going through difficult times. At the beginning of May 2024, an unusual measure fell on the head of the investigating judge who has been in charge for a year of coordinating the investigations of the judicial police.
His investigation, which was nearing completion, was simply put on hold on May 6. A suspension decided by the investigating chamber of the Poitiers Court of Appeal pending the examination of the nullities which is not scheduled until next September.
Suspects’ phones cloned for better surveillance
Since then, three of the main protagonists who were indicted and placed in pre-trial detention in spring 2023 have been re-released, which has caused some gnashing of teeth in the legal community.
The detention order of one of them was about to expire and it could not even be renewed. He was therefore released without any constraint of judicial supervision.
Two others were released but placed under judicial supervision. This is what happened once again this Tuesday.
Big cars and trips to Meaux
The protagonists, who were driving very high-powered vehicles, are accused of having made substantial supplies of hashish in Bordeaux but especially in the Meaux area in the greater Paris region.
If the legal fate of this case is so closely monitored, it is because it is considered a pivot in explaining what is happening in the Clou-Bouchet district of Niort, marked by numerous settling of scores against a backdrop of drug trafficking.
Access encrypted messaging
In order to penetrate the mysteries of trafficking, investigators used intelligence-grade techniques whose legality is being challenged in court.
They are said to have cloned the cell phones of suspects in order to spy on their conversations on encrypted, and therefore theoretically unhackable, messaging services such as Telegram or WhatsApp.
